East Timor eyes ARF membership

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

While East Timor is still in the early stages of the process to become a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the world's youngest nation has a very good chance to become a member of Asia's top security forum sometime this year.

East Timorese Foreign Minister and Nobel Laureate Jose Ramos Horta, who is in Jakarta as a guest to attend the 37th ASEAN Minister Meeting (AMM) and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), said on Tuesday that Dili had received support from the United States, Japan, China, Malaysia and Thailand to enter the ARF.

"We hope that this year, East Timor will be admitted into the ARF," Ramos stated in an interview with The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

In fact, East Timor should have been admitted into ARF last year at the Phnom Penh meetings along with Pakistan.

But at that time, India, an ARF member, did not agree on the inclusion of Pakistan, meaning that the whole discussion of new members was put on hold and that left East Timor waiting another year.

"East Timor's membership has been sacrificed because of the India-Pakistan impasse. So I did not see the objection anymore to East Timor's membership this year," he said.

"However, if there is any country that (now) has objections, it should express those publicly so we know why we can't join the ARF," he explained.

Indonesia - the current chair of ASEAN and the host of ASEAN and ARF ministerial meetings - stated that the admission of East Timor into ARF had not been put on the agenda.

Marty A. Natalegawa, spokesman at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, would only acknowledge that East Timor had applied for ARF membership.

The ARF, formed a decade ago with a mandate to cooperate on regional peace and stability among ASEAN members, also comprises Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand, South Korea, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, Russia and the United States.

Under the ARF rules, a consensus must be achieved among forum members for the admission of a new member.

East Timor is now a member of Southwest Pacific Dialog, together with Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea. East Timor is a special observer on the Pacific Islands Forum.

"We are now the only member of Southwest Pacific Dialog that is not a member of the ARF," he said.

In regard to ASEAN membership, Horta believes that might be a bit further down the road.

"In the next five to six years, we might be able to join ASEAN," he said.

Horta, the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize winner, will hold bilateral talks with his Indonesian counterpart Hassan Wirayuda on Wednesday. The two ministers were scheduled to sign a border agreement.

"We have reached an agreement on 90 percent of our border, while, the remaining 10 percent will be resolved by September," he said.

Border issues are one of the key residual issues that have resulted from the separation of East Timor and Indonesia in 1999.

Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975 and ruled it until 1999, when the Timorese voted overwhelmingly for independence in a United Nations referendum.

Asked whether the country would attempt to prosecute Indonesian military officers who have been named in cases of human rights violations over the 1999 violence, Horta acknowledged that many of the Timorese were unhappy with the lack of justice for those responsible for the violence.

"But we are realistic. We understand Indonesia's dilemmas and difficulties, it's a country that also has had a dramatic transformation from an authoritarian regime to a full-fledged democracy,"

"East Timor should be very cautious in not pushing for the issue of justice that might have a backlash in Indonesia and might be manipulated by some people to destabilize the situation in Indonesia and undermine the relationship between Indonesia and East Timor," he said.

He said that the government and people of East Timor would honor whoever the next president of Indonesia was to continue improving relations.

"If the Indonesian people decide to elect someone like Gen. (ret) Wiranto as president, the people of East Timor will honor it, the government of East Timor will accept and work with the president to continue the relationship that we have made," he said.